The Sauntering Pilgrim

Palm Sunday worship services traditionally begin with a reading from Mark’s gospel. It’s the description of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of his final week, the reading in which the crowd shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 1:9-10).

Because the scriptures are a living thing, it does no good for us to celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Holy Week if we don’t enter our own Jerusalem today – if we don’t enter the center of our own lives, the place where all the forces of life and death, of light and dark live side by side – and confront those opposites with the reconciling love of God.

At the turn of the first millennium, Jerusalem was the political, religious, and cultural center of the Jewish world, where everything good was to be found. There also, existing side-by-side with everything good, could be found all the forces of darkness that Jesus confronted with his ministry of reconciling love. Jesus could have skimmed along on the surface of life and simply critiqued what was wrong with the world. Instead, he plunged into the heart of life, where light and dark, good and evil, had their origin, and he embraced all of it, like a hen gathering her brood under her wings (Matt. 23:37).

Anyone who wants to live a full, whole, and healthy life, must come to terms with the darkness that dwells within. To know who we are, we must be able to state what we’re living for, in detail, and we must be able to identify what’s keeping us from living fully for the thing we want to live for. We must be able to name the light and the dark within us.

It won’t do for us to look outside ourselves for reasons why we’re not living the abundant life Jesus offered (John 10:10); we must look inside. We must undertake some rigorous self-examination; we must “go to Jerusalem,” to the place in our hearts where good and bad, light and dark, live side by side, and we must reconcile the opposites that live within us. Only then can we approach the heaven where we yearn to live.

Isaac the Syrian, bishop of Nineveh in the seventh century, wrote, “Be at peace with your own soul; then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your soul. Flee from sin, dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend.”

A healthy self-examination is not too difficult for us; it’s not beyond our reach; and we don’t need special help to get started. All we need is the willingness to do it and the discipline to set aside a few minutes for it in the evening and morning.

At the end of each day, in an attitude of prayer, simply look back over the day and ask yourself a few simple questions. What virtues did I exemplify – courage, honesty, compassion, and so on? Did I treat others with genuine respect, and where did I miss an opportunity to do that? Was I fair to myself and others? Did I exhibit a kind heart today? What temptations did I resist? In what specific way am I better than I was yesterday? And hold those things before God in prayer.

In the morning, recall what you learned in your self-examination the night before. Look over what you expect in the day ahead, and ask yourself how you will put into practice what was revealed to you the night before. How will I do better at practicing a virtue I’ve chosen to work on? What specific temptation or bad habit will I resist today? How will I show genuine Christ-like love to just one person today? How will I live most fully for the thing I want to live for?

Today we recall how Jesus entered Jerusalem to complete his calling in life. Today can also be an invitation to enter our own Jerusalem, to meet all the light and dark we find there with the embrace of reconciling love, and to discover the ladder by which to ascend to heaven. It may be the beginning of a more authentic celebration of resurrection in our own lives. ▪